I began this blog on 7 July 2008 to recount some of my thoughts, feelings and actions, as well as medical events, of the year leading up to my GRS/SRS.

On 7 July 2009, Dr. Marci Bowers very successfully performed my surgery.

In the early days of my recovery, I decided to continue this blog to describe what I experience and learn as I begin to live as a "new woman."

20 June 2015

"Tolerance" Of Transgender People Caused The Charleston Church Massacre: Erick Erickson

It seems that any time there's a manmade tragedy or natural disaster, we are somehow blamed for it.By "we" I mean LGBT people. Usually, the blamers use "gay" as a catch-all term to include anyone who doesn't conform to accepted norms of gender and sexuality. It's actually relatively rare that one group in the spectrum--e.g., gay men, lesbians or transgenders--are specifically indicted for one of the world's evils. Well, this time is one of those relative rarities. Transgender people are being blamed for something terrible. Actually, we're not being blamed for the tragedy itself; rather, someone is attributing it to acceptance of transgender people.Yes, you read that right. The mere fact that because of society's acceptance of trans people--or, more specifically, Caitlyn Jenner--people don't know what's right anymore.Erick Erickson, the founder and editor of the blog Red Neck, I mean, RedState, had this to say on his radio show:“We can’t have the conversations we need to have in this country about mental health and evil. We cannot have those conversations. It is impossible to have conversations like that in a society that can look at a 65-year-old male Olympian and say ‘Hey, he’s a girl now. We have to start calling him Caitlyn.’”Now, if you read yesterday's post, you might have guessed that he was blaming the fact that "we cannot have those conversations" for the massacre of nine members of a Bible study group in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, South Carolina. OK...Calling Caitlyn Jenner who she is caused Dylann Roof to sit with those churchgoers--all of them African-Americans--and blow them away. To be fair, Mr. Erickson is not a scientist or clinician, so perhaps he can be forgiven for some gaps in my knowledge. And I'll admit that at times, my logic has been even faultier than his.But I try not to repeat my mistakes. Apparently, Mr. Erickson makes no such effort--or, again to be fair, he may have been unaware of his error. Or he must have a very, very wide mouth that's impervious to pain: He put his foot in it again when he repeated his sentiments in a post he wrote on his RedState:"As a nation, when these things happen, we never have the conversation about real evil. We also never have the conversation about mental health.

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Instead, we descend into partisan conversations where everything is political and neither side can concede or acknowledge the other's points. Everyone and everything gets blamed while ignoring the actual person who killed.
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A society that looks at a 65 year old male Olympian and, with a straight face, declares him a her and "a new normal" cannot have a conversation about mental health or evil because that society no longer distinguishes normal from crazy and evil from good. Our American society has a mental illness -- overwhelming narcissism and delusion -- and so cannot recognize what crazy or evil looks like."So let me get this straight (pun intended): It's tolerance that caused a young white man to kill nine African Americans because he believed that the races should be separate and black men "rape our women". Hmm...I guess the word tolerance doesn't mean what I've always thought it meant. If anything, I thought tolerance was more descriptive of those nine people who let him join them in their Bible study group before he killed them.But, hey, what do I know?

Here I Am!

Welcome to Transwoman Times

One year before that, I began Transwoman Times to recount the medical, emotional, spiritual and other events of the year of my life leading up to my surgery.

The moment I was well enough to boot up my laptop, I decided to continue this blog. For the moment, I plan to describe my experiences during my "first" year of my "new" life. And, perhaps, I will continue this blog beyond that.

Most of what you read in Transwoman Times will be written by me. If I haven't written it, it will have come from a song, poem, or any other piece of writing ranging from a classic novel to a tabloid article. These references will be duly acknowledged: I might borrow, but I don't steal (or beg).

Although I started Transwoman Times for selfish reasons (i.e., I enjoy writing and I want an outlet for my feelings and a record of my experience.) , I hope you find this interesting, inspirational or of some other value. Maybe it will apall or simply bore you. In any case, please keep on reading and pass this along to friends, co-workers, in-laws and whomever else you want to read this. And, if you want to link this to your website, please feel free to do so, and just let me know. (Hey, I might be interested in your website!)So, I hope this enlightens, entertains or moves you in some other way. If nothing else, you are reading about someone who is engaged by the process of her life. I hope you are, too!